Someone tricked Neil deGrasse Tyson into EATING Turkish coffee

Ali Tufan Koç - LOS ANGELES

American astrophysicist and author Neil deGrasse Tyson has admitted that he might have been trolled in Turkey by an unidentified friend who made him eat the dregs of Turkish coffee.

“I ate it spoon after spoon. Did they troll me?” Tyson asked the Hürriyet reporter during a recent interview in California.

Turkish coffee is brewed from finely ground medium-roast Arabica coffee. It leaves behind a thick sediment, which is called “telve” in Turkish, on the bottom of the cup.

Tyson was told by the correspondent that the telve was not usually eaten in Turkey except a few who wrongly believe that it is good for health.

“Its taste was not awful, but I was not used to eating the dregs after I drink my coffee. Perhaps it can be done once a month, but you can’t do it everyday. That telve would ruin you!” Tyson added.

The popular science communicator explained that he had the odd Turkish coffee experiment during a holiday in Turkey six years ago.

“On the first day of my holiday, our tour guide was a Turk. He told us about the food culture, music, etc, with their history and Turkish traditions,” Tyson said. “The second day we had a Greek guide who told the same stories but only replacing their actors with Greeks.”

There is nothing in this universe that cannot be shared peacefully, Tyson added.

“For instance, just put the label on top of your baklava dessert to claim that it is the joint product of the Turkish- Greek friendship. Everyone would win,” he said.

The Hürriyet interview with Tyson was conducted in the scope of the promotion campaign for the new season of his NatGeo television documentary, Cosmos.